


Traditions

by Ash573



Category: Fence (Comics)
Genre: M/M, bed sharing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-12 02:14:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29752542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ash573/pseuds/Ash573
Summary: As their fencing competitions begin, Seiji and Nick accidentally find a unique strategy that seems to grant them good luck for the time being, so they decide to make the most of it while it lasts.
Relationships: Nicholas Cox/Seiji Katayama
Comments: 8
Kudos: 39





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This idea came to me out of fucking nowhere and although it's ridiculous, I couldn't get it out of my head so here we are. Thank you for reading <3!!

“You’re in a particularly bad mood today,” Nicholas noted as he slid onto the couch next to Seiji. Seiji shifted over as much as he could, but Nicholas seemed to have a habit of leaning closer.

They waited in the lobby of a Marriott hotel filled with other fencing teams from around the area. The competition would last the entire weekend, so most of the teams decided to stay at the hotel where the competition was located. 

Seiji eyed Nicholas with distaste, only proving his bad mood. But Seiji had no desire to dispute Nicholas's statement. “I’m rarely in a good mood,” Seiji said at last, hoping that would give Nicholas the hint to just stay quiet.

“You usually aren’t this irritable on fencing trips though,” Nicholas went on, ignoring all signals Seiji was giving. “Aiden’s usually the one in a bad mood if he even bothers to show up.”

“Hey,” Aiden warned from the other couch. He was resting his head on Harvard’s shoulder but he lifted his head up at the accusation. “I’m here today, so I would rather not have to listen to two freshmen insult my mood.”

Nicholas just raised his brows as if to tell Seiji that Aiden’s reaction just proved his point. Seiji was inclined to agree. 

“But seriously why are you in a bad mood?” Nicholas asked. 

“It’s nothing,” Seiji said with enough rudeness in his voice that Nicholas finally gave up. 

Finally, Seiji thought. He went back to eyeing the lobby and the dozens of fencers who were checking in too. 

Seiji had reviewed the schools they were competing against on the bus already and none of the teams he saw so far were intimidating. Thankfully they weren’t up against Exton yet, since Exton was located just outside of the boundaries for this competition. Halverton High, however, was in bounds. 

Halverton was the only school that worried Seiji as of now. It was ranked second next to Exton and had a talented arrangement of fencers in their team, including Sungchul Park. 

Kings Row up against them tomorrow. 

Seiji was able to handle the stress of competing alone without an issue, but it felt strange being on a team. Different. He had more weight on his shoulders now and Dmytro wasn’t here either.

And there was the question of Kings Row being able to take on a school like Halverton. Seiji hadn’t wanted to say anything negative about the team in front of Harvard, since he knew Harvard would take it to heart. 

So Seiji kept quiet and just studied the teams. But, of course, Nicholas noticed. 

The coaches came back a few moments later with room keys in hand. “Alright, boys,” Coach Williams said, “it’s getting late so get some rest before tomorrow.” They all nodded, exhausted from the three hour bus ride. 

The room arrangements had been worked out beforehand, with the plan being that Aiden, Harvard, and Eugene would room together in one room, and Nicholas and Seiji in the other, since it was most similar to their arrangement at Kings Row. 

Harvard distributed them as they all got up to find their rooms. Seiji was already dreading spending more time with Nicholas than usual, but a hotel room wouldn’t be too much different from their dorm, so he’d told himself it would be fine. 

They divided up into their separate rooms that were only a few doors apart. Seiji pressed the key to the lock pad and walked into the room. He froze only moments into it and Nicholas stumbled into him. 

“Seiji, what—” Nicholas went silent. 

Then Nicholas’s eyes found what Seiji was staring at. The room was just as big as their dorm but instead of two beds there was one. It looked like a queen-size bed, enough room for two people, but it was still only one. 

“This can’t be our room,” Seiji said instantly, dropping the bags from his shoulders to pull out his phone. 

“The room key says the same number. I think it is,” Nicholas tried to say, but Seiji was already scrolling through his contacts for Coach Williams, who didn’t answer. 

Nicholas had already walked towards the bed and sprawled out his stuff. Seiji got a sense of déjà vu from the time he’d watched Nicholas unpack all his shit at Kings Row. He glared at the bed, disgusted for a moment before he turned around. “Follow me,” he told Nicholas.

Seiji led the way to Harvard’s room and Eugene opened it. “Hey, is everything—”

Seiji didn’t bother letting Eugene finish and walked right past him. “I think there’s been a mistake with our room.” Then he saw the bed in their room. The two rooms looked identical but this room had an extra sofa bed that Eugene had his stuff on. 

Aiden was laughing from the bed where he was already resting his head on a pillow. “You didn’t know there would only be one bed? Hotels rarely have two twin beds.”

“I told you,” Nicholas mumbled, but Seiji heard it perfectly clear.

Seiji glared from Aiden to Nicholas for a moment before turning back to Harvard. “So this isn’t a mistake?” Harvard was the only one who seemed sympathetic. 

“Sorry, but it’s not. It’s only for a few days though and you two should be used to living with one another by now, right?” Harvard asked, glancing between the two freshmen as a responsible captain. “I wouldn’t recommend trying to get out of it. Coach Williams’s suicide rules still apply here.”

Nicholas nodded and Seiji nodded only a second after. Fine, he relented. Running suicides with Nicholas was not a punishment he cared for. 

“So you knew this too?” Seiji asked Nicholas as they walked back to their room. 

“Uh, yeah,” Nicholas said with a small laugh. “I’ve been in plenty of motels with smaller beds than this, so really this isn’t that bad.”

Seiji rolled his eyes. He didn’t want to imagine anything smaller than this. Seiji saw Nicholas took up enough space in his own bed every morning, so how were they both going to sleep here?

Seiji eyed the room with more observant eyes this time around. The bed took up the majority of the room, but there was a desk and chair in the corner and a TV mounted on a dresser.

“I think we should establish some rules,” Seiji said, setting his fencing gear on the desk to claim that area. 

Nicholas was already sitting on the edge of the bed again and this time he held the remote in hand angled towards the television. “Like what?”

“Give me your room key,” Seiji said, his hand extended. 

“What? Why?” Nicholas asked. 

“Because I don’t want you to lose it.”

“I won’t.”

“You lost it last time and the time—”

“Okay, fine,” Nicholas said, tossing the key to Seiji from the bed. “Any other rules?”

“Like you staying on your side of the bed,” Seiji said, nudging him with his foot. Nicholas purposefully laid out across the bed. 

Seiji had the urge to hit him with one of the decorative pillows but he restrained himself. If Nicholas’s eyesight was hindered he wouldn’t be much use to the team tomorrow. Nicholas was improving at an impressive rate, which gave them an advantage over other schools who still expected to go up against an amateur. But Seiji didn’t plan on complimenting Nicholas when he was acting like this. 

Seiji nudged Nicholas again but he didn’t move. 

“Nicholas, you’re disgusting. We spent hours on that bus. I don’t want your filth getting in the bed.”

Nicholas laughed, but did as he was told and stood up. “Any other rules?”

“Also, you can’t eat anything on the bed. Please, for once, put on an actual shirt. And don’t steal the blanket.” The list could have gone on, but Seiji was tired. 

Nicholas nodded in agreement but continued to stare at Seiji. 

“What?” Seiji snapped. 

“Is this how you always are before bigger competitions?” Nicholas asked. “I know there’s something wrong.”

Seiji ignored him and gathered his pajamas before walking towards the bathroom. All he gave Nicholas in response was a quick “I’m showering first” and then he shut the door. 

He ignored Nicholas’s continuing questions. Seiji had no desire to explain to Nicholas the reasoning why he was on edge about this commotion. But in all honesty, Seiji didn’t know how to put it into words without it sounding ridiculous.

Nicholas didn’t seem to ever get nervous before competitions. He was strangely positive, which Seiji didn’t understand. As long as Nicholas could fence he was happy.

There was something admirable about that quality of Nicholas’s, and as strange as it was to Seiji, he knew Nicholas loved fencing like he did. He never had to justify that part of himself to Nicholas like he did with others. It was just an unspoken truth that they loved the sport. 

Seiji showered without thinking of Nicholas's questions, washing off the filth from the long bus ride. Once he finished dressing, he left the bathroom only to find Nicholas sitting in the chair and flipping through channels and looking close to falling asleep.

Nicholas gathered his things and left for the bathroom while Seiji busied himself with flipping through his journal, looking back at fencers he’d fenced before that he knew would be at this competition. If he’d had the time during the week he would have gone over them with Harvard earlier.

Seiji heard the bathroom door unlock but didn’t bother hiding his journal from Nicholas. He’d have to go over the fencers’ techniques with Nicholas anyways. 

Seiji looked up at Nicholas and froze. He walked out of the bathroom, running a towel through his still damp hair. Nicholas wasn’t wearing his normal black tank top and shorts. Instead he was wearing the pajama set Seiji had given him a few weeks ago. 

Seiji blinked at the sight. He hadn’t seen Nicholas wear them yet so he’d forgotten he’d even given them to Nicholas to begin with. Seiji was surprised he had even brought them since they weren’t his usual style. Though Nicholas managed to still look disheveled in them since the buttons on either side of the shirt didn’t align, leaving a portion of his collarbone exposed. 

“What?” Nicholas asked, glancing down at his pajamas, not noticing the misaligning buttons. “You were the one who told me to wear a shirt. And I was cold because the hot water ran out.” He said the last part with a disapproving look towards Seiji. 

“That isn’t my problem,” Seiji said without looking up from his journal. It was only fair that Seiji got some sort of payback.

Nicholas set up his phone charger and crawled under the covers. “What are you writing?” Nicholas asked with a yawn as he turned over on his side to face Seiji. 

“Nothing,” Seiji said. That much was true, he wasn’t writing anything new down, just looking over his old notes from fencers at Halverton and other schools. 

Nicholas shifted and before Seiji could stop him, Nicholas snatched the journal from him. To Seiji’s surprise, Nicholas didn’t just flip right through it, but he kept it out of reach of Seiji. 

“Give it back,” Seiji said, reaching over Nicholas to take it from him but Nicholas’s arm was too long. Seiji almost turned closer but realized if he tried to get any closer to Nicholas he’d wind up falling on top of him. 

Seiji sat back with as much dignity as he could while his journal was still in Nicholas’s hands. 

“I’m not going to look through your journal. I know it’s private,” Nicholas said, setting the journal down in between them. “But you’re going to have to be honest with me. You’re in a shitty mood and I don’t want to have to deal with it. And we’re friends, you can tell me what’s bothering you.”

Seiji halted whatever remark he was about to make. He didn’t understand why Nicholas kept insisting they were friends while they still had their fights, though Seiji had to admit their relationship wasn’t as tense as it had been at the beginning of the school year. 

It was almost October and Nicholas comfortably called him a friend. Maybe Nicholas was right. Seiji didn’t like talking about his worries over fencing. In fact, he hated it. But his hatred wasn’t truly his. It was what he’d trained himself to do after years of slowly realizing that Jesse could take advantage of those feelings, of his nerves and insecurities, and let it play out in a match. With Nicholas, Seiji didn’t have to worry. He wasn’t going to be fencing Nicholas tomorrow.

Coach’s endless lectures on team bonding briefly passed through his head. 

There was something about the feeling of being in a hotel room, away from school, away from his normal routine before competing with Dmytro, that made it easier to be honest with Nicholas. 

“Fine,” Seiji said at last. Nicholas’s eyes widened in surprise at Seiji’s agreement and he sat up, giving Seiji more space. 

Seiji sat up too and picked up his journal. “I... I don’t know why, but I’m on edge to be fencing Halverton tomorrow.”

“That’s what you didn’t want to tell me?” Nicholas asked. “I’m nervous too.”

Seiji rolled his eyes. “You should be. Their fencers have been fencing competitively for years.”

“And so have you, but it’s okay to be nervous,” Nicholas said, avoiding the rudeness in Seiji’s comment altogether.

“I’ve never seen them fence as a team, but I’ve been up against a few of their fencers in the past, so I was looking over my notes on them.”

“That’s what you write in your journal?” Nicholas asked, a small smile teasing the corner of his mouth already. 

“Yes, why?” Seiji asked.

Nicholas laughed. “You guard that thing with your life. I would have thought it held your darkest secrets and desires, not fencing statistics.”

“It’s still private,” Seiji warned. 

Nicholas put his hands up in defense. “Hey, I’m still not going to look through it. So if you really do have your darkest desires in there I’m never going to know. You could have the most wild fantasies in there and—”

“Nicholas, shut up. It’s just fencing notes. You could benefit from adopting that habit too,” Seiji said.

Nicholas groaned. “I do enough writing for school. And besides, we are on a team now, so I can just ask you about the fencers’ techniques.”

“Good luck getting me to give you any details from my notes if you don’t at least try my idea first.”

“Fine. I will,” Nicholas said with too much certainty that Seiji wanted to call his bluff. “Once I get a journal.”

Seiji nodded, thinking that was the end of Nicholas’s discussion, but he didn’t seem inclined to sleep, despite his obvious exhaustion. “Do you believe in luck when it comes to fencing?” Nicholas asked, looking up at Seiji.

“No,” Seiji said. “I think it’s better to value something measurable.” After a moment, Seiji returned the question. 

Nicholas shrugged. “I never thought about it until now. Luck seems like it’s assuring until something goes wrong, so there’s no point.”

Seiji nodded in a quiet agreement.

“I’m going to sleep,” Seiji said.

He set the journal on his nightstand near his phone and shut off the lamp. Seiji laid back down and tried his best to sleep. His efforts only lasted a few minutes before he heard Nicholas turn over on his side, clutching a pillow in his arms. 

“Seiji,” Nicholas whispered. 

Seiji let out a quiet “what” without looking over at Nicholas. He would’ve just pretended not to hear him any other time, but he wasn’t anywhere close to sleeping now so he didn’t bother. 

“Is this the first time you were nervous about a fencing match?” 

Seiji thought about it for a moment. He only began being nervous about fencing matches in middle school, once rankings mattered more, and he and Jesse became closer and closer in skill. But ever since coming to Kings Row, the same level of nerves wasn’t there. This was just a reminder of the past. 

“Not the first,” Seiji said, tilting his head to look at Nicholas. 

“So what did you used to do?” Nicholas asked through a yawn. 

Seiji didn’t really have an answer. He just didn’t think about his nerves. He wouldn’t let himself. It was a simple thing really, but it had worked most of the time. It’s what he’d do tomorrow too. “I would just think about fencing, not the competition aspect, just the movements. It’s simpler that way to only think about fencing.”

Nicholas nodded into the pillow. “Interesting. I’ll have to write that on the Seiji Katayama techniques page in my journal.”

Seiji sighed, finally exhausted from the day and from Nicholas’s continuing conversation. “Good. All I have written down on your page is the word ‘zero’.”

“Asshole,” Nicholas mumbled into the pillow. 

Seiji could feel his eyelids droop and sleep come over him, but just before he slipped into unconsciousness, he heard Nicholas’s quiet voice say goodnight.


	2. Chapter 2

Nick was too exhausted to fully open his eyes. Hotel beds like this were much more comfortable than the ones he’d stayed in with his mom. His head was resting against the pillow and his arms were wrapped around the other. He could almost feel himself drifting back to sleep when he felt the pillow under his arms move.

Nick jolted awake, realizing what he’d been resting against wasn’t a pillow but Seiji.

Seiji woke up instantly and shoved Nick away. “What are you doing?”

Nick yawned and rubbed his eyes awake. “What?” he asked, and as much as the question was meant to be sincere it came out too mumbled.

Seiji’s initial anger was still fuming below the surface of his sleepy expression. Against all reason, Nick thought for a moment, when Seiji wasn’t yelling at him, that Seiji looked somewhat cute. Nick rarely saw Seiji when he wasn’t perfectly put together, even before bed he always looked presentable. But now his hair was ruffled from sleep and his pajamas were all wrinkled and disheveled too.

Nick got his senses back as Seiji shoved a pillow at him. “I told you to stick to your side of the bed,” he said with a scowl, the sleepiness gone from his face.

Nick sat back fully to dodge the next pillow Seiji threw at him. Nick ducked just in time and the pillow hit his suitcase behind him instead. The suitcase tumbled off the chair but Nick didn’t bother seeing where all his stuff went scattered on the ground. Nick figured he could deal with his things later and deal with an angry Seiji now. “Why are you throwing pillows at me? You weren’t on your side either. I didn’t reach over and grab you in the middle of the night.”

“So how did I end up there?” Seiji’s eyes fell to Nick’s arms.

“I thought you were a pillow I guess,” Nick said with a shrug. He fought back the urge to argue that it was just as likely that Seiji had leaned over onto him.

Seiji blinked back at him. “How could you confuse me with a pillow?”

Nick groaned and slumped back down on the pillow. “I was tired. And your shoulder was comfortable.”

Nick thought he saw Seiji’s cheeks reddened but he turned away fast enough before Nick could get a better look.

“You can’t deny you were comfortable either,” Nick attempted. If Seiji hadn’t been comfortable, Nick knew there was no way Seiji had put up with it simply for Nick’s sake.

Seiji chose not to answer and said, “Get dressed. We have to meet Harvard in their room for breakfast.”

Nick watched as Seiji got up and instantly started being productive. Was this what Nick missed every morning when Seiji woke up hours before him or was this just how he acted when he was nervous?

Nick picked up his phone off of the nightstand and decided he could wait to get ready after Seiji was done. He saw that Joe, his old coach, had texted him wishing him luck at the competition today and to not get nervous. Nick texted back. He’d forgotten that he’d sent Joe the competition schedule, since he hadn’t expected Joe to do anything with it.

And, oddly, Nick’s mind found his way back to Seiji. Seiji had expressed his nerves last night, and although Nick had been the one to pester him into confessing it, he was still surprised that someone like Seiji could get nervous.

Seiji came out of the bathroom fully dressed.

“Why did you get dressed? We’re just having breakfast,” Nick said as he finally got up from the bed.

“I’m not walking around in my pajamas,” Seiji said, eyeing Nick’s.

“You gave these to me, why are you judging them?” Nick reminded him.

Seiji rolled his eyes, giving up. “At least just fix the buttons.”

Nick glanced down at the shirt and realized the buttons were in the wrong holes, leaving one side of the shirt riding up higher than the other. He began undoing the shirt to fix the alignment when he heard Seiji again. “Don’t undress _here_.”

“Why? I undress in our dorm wherever,” Nick said, turning around to fix the buttons in the mirror.

“Hence the duck curtain,” Seiji reminded him.

Nick didn’t need the reminder but he let it go and got ready, though he didn’t change his pajamas. As much as he disliked the style of them, he had to admit they were warm and were more comfortable than they looked.

He slipped on his shoes and followed Seiji to Harvard’s room. The coaches and the rest of the team were already piled around the couch when Seiji and Nick came in. They ate breakfast as they discussed the plan for the competition and Seiji explained some of the fencers’ techniques that he’d been going over last night.

The coaches headed out, but the team stayed behind in Harvard’s room.

Eugene handed Nick coffee which Nick took gratefully. “So, how was the room? Did Seiji kick you out or something? You look exhausted.”

Nick leaned back on the couch. “He didn’t kick me out but don’t give him any ideas.”

“Trust me, I’ve already thought it through. I would’ve considered the option but I knew it would have just ended with you knocking on the door until I let you in,” Seiji said, sitting across from them.

Nick stuck his tongue out at him but Aiden laughed. Harvard gave a quick side eye to Aiden and then said, “You two are roommates. You should be used to each other by now or at least find a way to tolerate each other.”

Nick agreed if only Seiji wasn’t being especially intolerable today.

Nick yawned and although he’d made it subtle and covered it with his arm, Seiji still found a reason to criticize. “Nicholas, how are you still tired? You slept comfortably enough,” Seiji said the last part with enough spite in his voice to cause Eugene to raise his brows at Nick.

Nick felt his face heat which he knew Eugene would tease him for, but he couldn’t help it in the moment. He knew waking up with Seiji accidentally in his arms like a pillow was an innocent mistake but nothing about it would sound that way to anyone else. Even Seiji hadn’t believed him.

“Let’s go, Nicholas. I won’t have you make us late,” Seiji said, already walking out the door.

_________________

They got ready in a hurry but Nick assumed he’d brought everything he needed with him down to the bathroom of the hotel that was reserved as a locker room for the competition. Nick was almost dressed when he realized he still needed his fencing glove. He dug around in his fencing bag but it was missing. “Shit,” he swore under his breath.

Seiji was adjusting the suspenders of his fencing uniform when he looked up at Nick. “What is it?”

“I don’t have my glove,” Nick said.

“You lost it?”

“I think it’s back in the room. I’ll go back and get it, calm down.”

“Tell Harvard first. We start the match in twenty minutes,” Seiji said, eying the other fencers milling around them in the locker room.

It wasn’t going to take Nick twenty minutes to find a glove but he figured he should tell Harvard where he was going anyway.

Harvard nodded. “Make sure Seiji goes with you, though. Coach is strict about the pair rule.”

Nick nodded and found Seiji again who was finishing putting his on his jacket. “You have to come with me,” Nick said.

Seiji looked unamused.

“The pair rule,” Nick reminded him.

“Go find Eugene.” Seiji was apparently too busy packing up his bag.

“Come on, Seiji, you literally have the room key.”

“You better make this fast,” Seiji warned, but he nodded to Nick to walk with him back to the room.

“How is this my fault?” Nick said, running a few moments to catch up with Seiji.

“It’s _your_ glove.”

“And _you’re_ the one who threw my stuff.”

Seiji didn’t respond so Nick took his silence as a win for the moment but he should have known better. Seiji’s silence was never a victory.

Once they got into their room, Seiji just crossed his arms and waited. Nick went right into searching, picking up the scattered pillows and the sheets Seiji had kicked off in the rush from this morning. As he picked up a pillow, Nick thought back to Seiji in his arms. That Seiji had been much more tolerable than the one in front of him now.

“Could you be any slower?” Seiji asked, crossing his arms.

Nick could tell without looking back at Seiji how agitated he was, but Nick wasn’t feeling sympathetic. He walked around their room, picking up some of the clothes that had fallen from his suitcase. “Well, you could help me instead of just standing there.”

“No, this is all your fault. I’m not going to waste any more patience with you.”

“Patience isn’t exactly a trait I’d use to describe you,” Nicholas retorted. “I’ll write that down when I get a journal.”

Seiji scoffed and began scanning the room closer for Nicholas’s fencing glove.

“Of all things to lose, why did you have to lose your fencing glove?” Seiji asked as he walked around looking for it.

“What does it matter?” Nick asked, crawling on the floor to look under the bed. “No matter what I lost I’d still have to come back up here.”

“Because we have other equipment you could borrow but we don’t have any other gloves for left handed fencers. Not that I’d let you borrow mine if you were right handed.”

“Yeah, I didn’t think you would.” Nick laughed as he got up to search through his suitcase. “But you should count yourself lucky I’m left handed. How else are you going to practice for your precious match against Jesse?”

Nick wasn’t sure why he decided now was the time to bring up Jesse. He knew all it would do is agitate Seiji and he was right.

Seiji glared at him. He had been searching through his own equipment too but hadn’t found anything.

“I don’t need you,” Seiji said, walking closer to Nick.

“You need me if you want to win against Jesse,” Nick insisted. He walked to the other side of the hotel room where the floor length curtains covered the door to a balcony. “Just imagine how many fencers he’s fencing against right now that have the same techniques as you do.”

Nick was standing closer to Seiji now, forgetting his original goal of searching for his glove.

Seiji was leaning against the curtains, crossing his arms. “I don’t need you to win against Jesse. If you think I do, you’re too cocky.”

“And who do you think I picked that up from?” Nick asked, his voice raising. The same anger that had risen inside him the first time they fought was coming out again, Nick could feel it.

“I don’t need you to fence Jesse. I don’t need you to fence at all. What I need is for you to find your glove,” Seiji demanded, raising his voice to meet Nick’s. Nick wanted to figure out a way to tell Seiji to shut up but he knew Seiji wouldn’t listen when he was like this. Seiji was more stubborn than Nick originally had thought and this trip was making it more than clear. “We have ten minutes to be down there and fence and if we don’t we’ll be disqualified. I swear, Nick, if you don’t—”

Nick didn’t know what went through his mind next. He only knew he didn’t want to hear any more of Seiji’s lecture. But instead of telling him to shut up, Nick promptly pressed his lips against Seiji’s and Seiji went silent. Nick was already close enough to Seiji from grabbing his fencing uniform, so all he needed to do was lean in. Nick felt Seiji’s hands latch onto his uniform for balance. He braced himself for Seiji to shove him away, but he didn’t.

It was a quick kiss, but it was more demanding and rough than quick kisses usually were, as if Nick was trying to put all the words he hadn’t said into Seiji through their mouths. Seiji’s body went tense against Nick and Nick instantly released him.

Nick was breathing hard from the kiss and from the rush of panic that flooded him as soon as he realized what he’d done. Nick had just wanted Seiji to shut up for one moment and let him talk so they could go back, he hadn’t meant to kiss him. “Are you done talking now?”

Seiji stared back at him with his mouth parted, his lips slightly red. “What—”

Nick couldn’t look him in the eyes for a moment, but when he glanced down, he saw where his glove was hidden from sight, behind the curtain. Nick could only guess it had gotten so out of place when Seiji had thrown the pillows at him that morning but Nick wasn’t about to bring that up now.

“Found it,” he said, picking it up and staring back at Seiji.

Seiji nodded. He cleared his throat and stepped away from Nick. “Let’s go. We only have a few minutes to get down there.”

Nick nodded in agreement, his legs still numb and his lips still parted in shock.

They took the elevator down in a more awkward silence than before. Nick and Seiji didn’t make eye contact, but Nick could tell he was listening. “Seiji, I —”

“I don’t need any ridiculous excuse. You wanted me to stop talking and it worked and you found your stupid glove. That’s all it is. Don’t you dare mention this to anyone, got it, Nicholas?” Seiji glared at him but he looked different than before. He was preparing to fence.

Nick nodded in agreement. He was not about to go about telling anyone that he accidentally kissed his roommate to shut him up when they were arguing right before a fencing match. Coach would certainly give them suicides for that.

Nick and Seiji walked back through the lobby and into the salle. Coach Williams eyed them briefly, but Nick held up his glove and assured her everything was fine.

Everything would be fine, Nick hoped. Though he didn’t know what he was going to do if he had to fence right now with his muddled thoughts still rushing through his brain.

Seiji was fencing Sungchul, the fencer who ranked fourth in last year’s nationals. This was the match Seiji had been nervous about, but he didn’t look nervous now. He looked colder and more serious than usual. Seiji walked onto the piste without a glance back at Nick.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay I PROMISE the plot synopsis will make sense soon lmao


End file.
